Italian children are finding it increasingly easy to get hold of both hard and soft drugs at school, according to the annual drugs report presented to parliament on Wednesday.
Around 12% of students between 15 and 19 say they can buy heroin at school and 26% say cannabis is available.
A further 6% say stimulants are on offer and 4% say they can buy hallucinogens between lessons.
However, the disco remains the best place for getting hold of drugs - particularly for cocaine - followed by direct purchase from dealers at their homes or on the street.
Around 51% of under 19s say it is ''easy'' or ''relatively easy'' to get their hands on any illegal substance within a short period of time.
Presenting the report to parliament, the government's drugs pointman Carlo Giovanardi downplayed the findings, pointing out that among the Italian population as a whole heroin use remained stable and - for the first time in years - cocaine use did not go up.
''The phenomenon of drug taking in Italy is serious, but it does not reach the levels of alarmism and numerically dramatic dimensions one hears of every day,'' he said.
However, the report revealed that drug-related mortalities increased in 2007, when there were 589 deaths - up 6% on 2006.
Nine out of ten cases were males, and the average age of overdose victims was 35.
Despite the increased availability of drugs, deaths from overdose among the under 19s remained stable at 1-2% of the total.
Heroin remains the primary drug involved in overdoses, responsible for 40% of incidents.
According to the report, the prices of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy have dropped over the last year, while the cost of cannabis and LSD has risen.
A gramme of cocaine in 2007 cost 71-93 euros, and a gramme of heroin 59-87 euros. Around 1 in 1,000 Italians are frequent cocaine users, and 14 in 1,000 say they use cannabis every day, the report said.
